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December 12 - 18, 2008 www.independentweekly.com.au The Independent Weekly 14 spectrum New thinking from our universities Virtual world is no game I Associate Professor Jill Slay dentity theft, fraud, virtual mugging and even virtual rape are among the crimes being committed in cyberspace as millions of people worldwide interact in virtual worlds and through online role-playing games. We have come across this interesting phenomenon as part of our work, which includes studying the effect of technologies such as insecure wireless networking, mobile phones, iPods and the internet, and their links to crime. Virtual worlds such as Second Life (a 3D world where users can socialise and connect using voice and text chat) or the large multi-player games such as World of Warcraft have become very popular, with recent figures (www.mmogchart.com) suggesting there are currently 16,000,000 subscribed users. More than 62 per cent of these users are subscribed to World of Warcraft. In his work Securing Virtual Worlds Against Real Attack, Igor Muttick, of McAfee, suggests that worldwide revenue from online gaming should approach $3.3 billion in 2009. These games may appear innocent, but there is emerging evidence to suggest that they are the source of a range of crimes. The obvious technical flaw in the games, which might lead to crime, is that they are vulnerable to hackers. Most of their early adopters or players have extensive technical skills in both game playing and the computer programs, or coding, behind the games. We now see a generation of virtual world hackers who are committing real crime in virtual worlds. Examples of this type of crime range from the trivial to the highly troublesome. In virtual worlds, where a player is represented by an avatar (alternative self) of their choice, we see “virtual rape”, “virtual mugging” and “virtual theft”. Individuals have lost all their game money, their own “selves” and their identities to clever hackers who have accessed the large game servers and hacked in to kill, rob, maim or destroy other players. Far-fetched, maybe trivial, but true (and a crime!). There is also the possibility of Second Life players can be vulnerable to a range of crimes. Inset: UniSA’s forensic computing lab director Jill Slay. Several countries – including real crime in virtual worlds. As reported by security software company Symantec, many virtual worlds and games allow players to conduct real-money transactions in virtual worlds. Players can use credit cards to buy the virtual money needed to carry out transactions within the game and play with players in other countries. The winner of the game can then exchange the virtual money for his own real currency and thus we have unregulated and largely anonymous currency transfer. Korea, China, UK and Germany – have reportedly been trying to address the issue of policing virtual worlds, and have found it needs a long-term solution and an international response. This is a complex issue, since we need to differentiate between virtual crime in virtual worlds and real crime in virtual worlds. While we assume that real legislation can be called on to deal with real crime in virtual worlds, virtual crime in virtual worlds (and this may be serious crime) needs some other kind of legislation or policing methodology. Photo: James Knowler What is the solution? As usual, ordinary internet security methods such as firewalls, avoiding opening unknown email attachments, and discarding emails with links or spam will save the everyday user from any kind of hacker, even the kind who hides in a virtual world. Once the crime (real or virtual) has been committed, the appropriate legal steps need to be taken, depending on the severity of the crime. ? Jill Slay is the forensic computing lab director, Defence and Systems Institute, at the University of South Australia. Individuals have lost all their game money, their own “selves” and their identities to clever hackers who have accessed the large game servers and hacked in to kill, rob, maim or destroy other players.